Damon by Vanessa Hawkes Read Free Book Online Page B

of town.”
    So we were back to the trip to Knoxville. “I can’t go. Anyway, my mother would never go with us and I can’t leave her alone.”
    “She will if she’s drugged up good,” he said.
    Now he was going too far. “I’m not gonna screw with her medication just so we can take a vacation.” I pointed to the road. “Not here, next one up.”
    He went ahead and took the wrong road then had to u-turn and go back.
    “Then we’ll keep the Bee Gees on the stereo the whole way,” he said.
    “Why?”
    “She asked for them thirty seven times last night.”
    “She did?” I couldn’t decide which was more interesting, that Damon had understood what Mama had been mumbling, that he had felt neurotically compelled to count her ramblings, or that Mama liked the Bee Gees. Or, any music at all.
    He parked at the square and turned to face me. “Just go inside and tell them you need to take your mother to the doctor and see what they say. If they say go ahead, we’ll leave early tomorrow morning. We need two full days to find the answer. If they mention work, we’ll wait. You’re only asking for four hours off. We’ll be back by Monday morning. That’s fair.”
    That did seem fair and I decided to see if I could work something out. Without making up lies about my mother.
    Damon sat kissing my fingers in succession, watching calmly as I mentally tried to work out the details of traveling with Mama. It wouldn’t be easy.
    “I’m good on cash,” he said. “We’ll have fun.”
    I slid closer to him, not wanting to spend our last few minutes together thinking about worrisome things. “Are we doing something tonight?”
    He pulled me closer and we met over the console to kiss and talk. “What do you want to do?”
    “Rent a movie? We can borrow Jaynie’s DVD player.”
    He traced my lips with his tongue, making me shiver. “And get some wine.”
    “As long as Mama doesn’t see it. She can’t mix it with her pills.”
    “We’ll take it in my room. I took all that stuff down to the cellar.”
    “You did?” Some of that ‘stuff’ I didn’t want put down in the cellar, but right now I just didn’t care what he did. “What about the old metal cooler?”
    “I took it down there, too.”
    “How? It weighs, like, two or three hundred pounds.”
    He gripped a handful of my hair and forced my head back, diving in to kiss and nibble my neck. “I’m Superman,” he growled.
    Adrenaline instantly flowed and I wanted to jump right on top of him there in the parking lot, but the bright digital clock on the stereo seemed to grow ten times larger. “I have to go.”
    “No,” he whispered, sliding his lips and tongue down to my collarbone. His hand traveled over my ribs to my breast. “I want my final minute.”
    He wrapped his arms around me and we spent that last minute simply holding each other, straining our backs over the console and not noticing. I wanted to say to hell with the world and run off to Knoxville with him that instant, but I wasn’t quite that far gone.
    I had to pull away. “I’ll see ya tonight.”
    He held onto the hem of my sleeve until I slipped away out of the car. I turned to say goodbye but he spoke first.
    “Ask for a week off. Two days aren’t enough.”
    I shook my head. “No, I can’t. It’s too much.”
    “The first time you talked to me,” he said, “I was so excited I almost threw up.”
    He stared at me with an expression so intense his eyes watered. His face turned red.
    “God, Damon, don’t say things like that right as I’m leaving.”
    “I love you,” he said.
    God. I got back in the car. I would have to be late. I couldn’t just slam the car door in his face. Yet, I almost wanted to. I couldn’t think of how to respond. Did I love him? I didn’t know. I was still too intoxicated by him to tell for sure.
    “We only met yesterday,” I whispered.
    “No,” he said, “we met a long time ago.”
    “Not really.”
    He kissed the scar on my wrist, then